Our collection has all manner of interesting items in it from flags, to jackets, to postcards. We collection items related to Scott County from all over the state. However, it’s important to be careful when taking things into the collection. I admit that I am a bit of a hoarder personally, and curators tend to be. I often have to fight my urge to accept everything that walks through the door, and ask myself some very basic questions. First of all, who is the item about and what is it, followed by when is it from and where in Scott County. The last question is the most important, and the one that is hardest to answer. Why? Why should we accept this item? What stories or insights into the people of Scott County can this item bring that we don’t already have?
It seems important to share this aspect of what we do here. I have had to turn down donations recently because they would be duplicate items, or wouldn’t be usable for relating the county’s history. If you are interested in donating artifacts, documents, papers, anything really, we encourage you to do so. Our collection is far from complete, and honestly never can be. Should you have something in mind that you would like to donate, give us a call first and let us know what you have. We might not always accept donations into the collection, but it might go into our education collection, or we might know another organization that would be interested as well. Like you, we hate to see things thrown in the trash and we do what we can to ensure that history continues to live on, even if we can’t be the ones to give it a home.